Guizhou: a decade of China’s big data valley

BEIJING, Oct. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — A news report fromChina.org.cn on Guizhou, a Chinese province, becoming China’s hub of big-data industry:

 

Guizhou is a province with marvelous mountains, unique climate conditions, and abundant renewable energy sources. In the past decade, Guizhou has transformed itself from an impoverished region into the front-runner of China’s big data industry.

According to official statistics, Guizhou attracted more than 9,000 big-data-related enterprises up until 2019. A number of tech giants, including Huawei and Apple, have moved into the province to establish cloud computing bases and big data centers. Guizhou has become one of the largest data centers in the world. According to news from the press conference of “A Decade of Guizhou” on August 2022, Guizhou has 17 super-large data centers in operation or under construction.

The Qixing data center of Chinese internet giant Tencent covers an area of 513,000 square meters, which was put into operation in 2018. Its core facilities were installed inside caves tucked into mountains, and no staff was required during day-to-day operations. Its data servers can be cooled naturally due to the geographical advantage of Guizhou, which is economical and environmental-friendly.

In addition to developing the data hosting industry, Guizhou has promoted the development of other related industries such as the electronic industry and e-commerce. So far, the efforts have been made active and effective. From 2016 to 2021, the growth rate of the digital economy in Guizhou province ranked first in China for seven consecutive years. The digital economy in Guizhou accounts for 34% of the regional GDP. The annual output value of its big data, electronics, and information industry was 116 billion yuan in 2015 and increased to 140 billion yuan in 2020.

As an industry-leading international event, the Big Data Expo has been held seven times since 2015, attracting numerous high-tech companies to showcase their cutting-edge technological innovations. The past decade has witnessed several milestones in the development of Guizhou’s big data industry, including the establishment of the Global Big Data Exchange and China’s first big data comprehensive pilot zone, as well as the approval as one of the national computing hubs for integrated national big data.